2024 - wrapped up?

Someone pointed out to me recently that I have not written anything on this blog for more than a year, and that I should hang my head in shame. While the first part is certainly true, I will hold my head up high, since this blog is very much a personal thing, and not something that I do to satisfy a ‘customer base’, or to supply a particular need.

When I started writing here (fifteen years ago), it was a record of my thoughts on motor racing, some analysis of performance in big or interesting races, and a bit of an autobiography of things (to do with racing) that I could remember from my past. Writing is a good way to record one’s moods, opinions and memories – and apart from anything else, I get a good deal of pleasure looking back at things I wrote years ago. Sometimes it is interesting how things change; often it is interesting how much they stay the same.

So, with all that in mind, how have I managed to get through twelve months without finding the need – or motivation – to put pen to paper? It is a lot to do with the action of doing, rather than reflecting. This year has been a busy one, not only in terms of motor-racing, but at home as well. I may no longer have a full-time job, but I find, like many pensioners, that there always seems to be something to occupy me.

On the health front, things have been relatively good. My multiple myeloma remains at bay. I continue to take medication, which my system seems able to tolerate adequately, and I have regular blood tests to monitor that it remains so. Although I am assured that the myeloma will return, there are apparently lots of new treatments available now that could ensure my survival for a good few years yet. I do easily get out of breath, and cannot undertake as many physical activities as many folk of my age are able to. But I try not to let that depress me, and rather celebrate the things that I am able to do.

In the Becketts box

Being involved in motorsport is a great motivation, of course. I have busied myself this year with a combination of work as a commentator, team strategist and occasional writer/analyst. I started doing public address commentary over forty years ago, and still enjoy the role enormously. Despite what one hears about the economic climate, club-level racing continues to be strong in this country, and I have been lucky enough to be able to talk about a lot of it this year. It is a genuine pleasure to witness the competitive but good-natured spirit in which most of takes place. It is a shame that the competitiveness occasionally spills over into argument and protest, but that is probably merely a reflection on the society in which we live these days. Happily, those who take it all too seriously are in the minority, and more often than not disputes can be resolved with a handshake and a beer.

Alongside my commentary work, I’ve also been able to attend all of the Creventic-organised 24H series races this year, working as team strategist for Red Camel Racing. Our year started well, with class victories in the six-hour race at Abu Dhabi and the 24 hours of Dubai, securing the ‘Middle East Trophy’ for the team with its Porsche 992 Cup car. The European season was less successful – a crash on the opening lap of the Mugello 12 hours, followed by a non-start at Spa-Francorchamps as the team tried and failed to find a throttle problem with our brand new car. Next was the 24-hour race at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, just outside Portimão in May, which rewarded the team with a third place in class as the new car behaved itself, but the throttle problem returned at Misano, stopping the car as it made its way to the grid.

The 992 Endurance Cup race at Spa-Francorchamps was a little different: running on Michelin tyres instead of Hankooks, refuelling in front of the pit instead of in a separate area, and using a safety car rather than Creventic’s traditional Code 60 neutralisation. Using a loan car from Porsche, delivered on Friday afternoon, just three hours before qualifying was due to start, the team performed magnificently, to score third place overall, It should really have been second, but for a couple of unfortunately-timed safety car periods.

In the winners’ circle

For the Barcelona 24 hours, the team was running an Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II in the GT3 class, which meant that, in theory at least, we could compete for overall honours. Returning to the scene of my leg-breaking incident of last year triggered some awkward memories, so I was extra careful on the steps up to Creventic’s Endurance Racing Lounge. It turned out to be a good ending to Red Camel’s season though, with our drivers acclimatising well to the new car, coming home in fourth place overall, third in the Pro-Am class, after a starter-motor problem delayed us by nearly five minutes.

Audi R8 GT3 on the grid at Barcelona

Undoubtedly the highlight of my year was being elected to become an Associate Member of the British Racing Drivers’ Club. In the first place, this was down to Martin Short, who contacted me last year, to suggest that he was going to propose me. After jumping through several metaphorical hoops, including a tantalising few weeks of ‘gazetting’ (during which time existing members had the opportunity to object to me), my application was accepted in April. For those who do not know, the British Racing Drivers’ Club is, in their own words, “arguably, the most exclusive club in motor racing”. The Club’s website asserts that, “with a membership that numbers only 850, it is home to the most successful racing drivers from Great Britain and the Commonwealth. Those who have met the exacting entry criteria have achieved at the highest levels of the sport, or made a significant contribution to enable others to do so. Membership of the BRDC is highly sought after and extremely difficult to achieve”.

Associate Membership is somewhat less exacting, but nevertheless, to achieve membership requires “an exceptional contribution to British Motor Sport over a considerable period of time”, it says. Fortunately for me, no-one objected to my application, and I can now consider myself in honoured company indeed.

Another highlight of my year was the Le Mans 24-hour race – which I attended this year for the 42nd time. After all these years, it is still a magical event, and the emergence of the Hypercar category has made the last two races very good indeed. I went out into the spectator enclosures on the Wednesday evening, and was once again impressed by the spectacle, amazed by the atmosphere and deafened by the LMP2 cars. I enjoyed being able to commentate for Radio Le Mans again, although losing so much of the race due to Safety Car interruptions was a pity. I regret that so much emphasis is placed these days on ‘spicing up the show’ for the TV viewer, but I suppose it is inevitable that the race is seen as a TV sport, rather than one to be experienced at trackside. I suppose (just like Formula 1) it is not dissimilar from the difference between cinema and live theatre; but I know which I prefer.

Such are the small margins these days, that it was only in the following week, while writing the analysis for Racecar Engineering, that the true picture of the race emerged. Call it luck if you will, but it was never clear – to me at least – that Ferrari had a winning car. They just happened to make better calls on tyres than Toyota.

As I’ve said, it has been a busy year, with my annual trip to the Race of Remembrance at Anglesey Circuit still to come. It will be the tenth running of the RoR, and the entry is as strong this year as it ever has been. It will be the seventh time that I’ve been, and although the format is familiar, it is still a fascinating event, and the Act of Remembrance is always moving.

Altogether, I’ve been at 22 race meetings this year, and I’ve witnessed over 230 races – some with over fifty entrants, a couple, I’m afraid to say, with less than five. But somehow it still doesn’t get boring. I suppose I shall have to do it all again next year?

A Class win, followed by an unexpected setback

Now and again my blog posts carry personal news rather than deep race analysis or my ponderings on the state of the world of motor-racing, and this is going to be such an article (eventually). Originally, I was thinking of how to share with you all the sense of achievement of a 992 class win in the Barcelona 24 hours, but then events took a somewhat unexpected turn.

I may be getting ahead of myself though. Regular readers may know that I have been helping out in the Red Camel Racing garage this year, assisting with tactical and strategy decisions during the Creventic 24H Series races. It hasn’t been a great season for us – starting with a disastrous broken engine in Dubai, followed by a distant second place at Mugello and disappointment at Spa and Monza with various issues providing only slim pickings in terms of championship points. The Estoril round was better, with a class win in the Qualifying Race followed by a second place in the 12-hour encounter providing evidence that we were able to challenge at the front of the 992 field.

The team arrived at the Circuit de Catalunya with high hopes – despite one of the strongest fields of the season so far. The Red Camel team consists of the family driving talents of Ivo Breukers, his two sons Rik and Luc, and the Swiss driver Fabian Danz, who regularly joins the squad for the longer races. I have explained in previous articles how our crew is made up of part-timers, none of whom is a qualified racing mechanic, but each of whom is filled with enthusiasm to show what can be done against far more experienced – and better-funded – rivals. Against such strong opposition as we had at Barcelona – from Willi Motorsport (Ebimotors), Red Ant, Duwo and HRT – mixing with the leaders would be a question of being quick in the pits as well as on the track.

To this end, the crew spent their evenings leading up to the race at Red Camel’s workshop practicing pit stops, and eventually getting the time for a change of brake discs down to just 70 seconds – at least in the quiet of the ‘practice pit lane’ in front of the shop!

The team arrived at the circuit on the Wednesday before the race, in order to participate in the “Track Day” session – establishing that the car was well set up for the race and the drivers were comfortable with it.

The Unofficial Private Tests on Thursday passed uneventfully, our best lap being half-a-second slower than the fastest 992 time, but we were very aware that the competition from Willi and Red Ant both had crews of all “Semi-Pro” drivers, whereas we had two “Am” drivers on our driving strength.

Friday was spent trying to optimise the set-up, but this meant heading down a couple of blind alleys, which was not helped by the arrival of rain either. The rain intensified for our qualifying session, with the result that only the first session (which had to be done by the “Am” driver) counted. Fabian Danz did a great job for us, but of course Red Ant had the benefit of being able to use a Semi-Pro, and promptly slotted their 992 on the overall front row of the grid!

We consoled ourselves with the usual platitudes – it’s a long race, grid positions are not important for a 24-hour race, consistency is more important than speed over an individual lap, etc., but inevitably it meant that there was some disappointment with only starting on the 9th row of the grid when our chief rival was so far ahead.

As usual though, we made our plan: we agreed the driver rotation, decided the points at which our ‘pit windows’ would open for fuel stops and driver changes, and knew how long the tyres, brake pads and discs would last before we would want to change those. As expected, the opposition was strong, although we were able to keep the pace of Willi Motorsport’s entry, the #903 Red Ant entry was simply too fast for us to keep up with. We kept with the plan though, pitted whenever the Code 60 periods fell in our favour, and cursed mildly to ourselves when things fell against us.

As the race entered its final phase, we found ourselves on fresh tyres with a ten-second deficit to the Red Ant car and plenty of fuel to play with. It got a bit messy at this stage, as Huub Eijndhoven at the wheel of the #903 desperately tried to keep Rik from overtaking. A late-race Code 60, caused by Jimmy de Breucker visiting the gravel in the other Red Ant car, enabled Eijndhoven to save a bit of fuel, with less than twenty minutes of the race to go. Jimmy De Breucker (father of Kobe, one of the crew of the #903), eventually got going again with eighteen minutes to go. Obviously, I was not an impartial observer in all of this, but to me Eijndhoven’s tactics were becoming increasingly questionable and it was with a sense of relief that Rik finally got past in what was to most observers at the time, the faster of the two cars. A race control message briefly announced that one of the several incidents between the two was under investigation, but was later revealed to need no further action.

For Red Camel, taking the chequered flag first in the 992 class (and in 7th place overall) was the cause of unrestrained – and in my view, justifiable, celebration. It had been a win for the entire team. Each of the drivers played their part: we had been consistent, our Am drivers had driven their fair share of the race (and then some), the refuelling had been done efficiently, utilising some, but not all of the Code 60 periods and our tyre and brake changes had been close to flawless throughout the 24 hours.

The tables and graphs show how we were not the fastest car out there, but we were able to get to the front at the right time by good teamwork and effective pit stops.

The graph above shows how we were able to beat the Willi Motorsport (#955) entry on pace - but we were slower than the Red Ant car (#903)

Below - a comparison of our four drivers against the four (Semi-Pro) drivers of Red Ant.

So far, then so good. We packed up the garage, cleared everything away and packed my bags ready to check into a city centre hotel, as I wasn’t flying home until the Monday evening. First, though, we would stop at the post-race party to say our goodbyes and thank the competition for a great race. On my way, I carelessly tripped up some steps, fell backwards and found myself unable to move my right leg. An ambulance was called, and instead of joining the rest of the team in celebration, I was carted off to the local hospital, where X-rays revealed that I had broken the top of my femur (basically a hip fracture).

Alone, in a foreign country and unable to speak the language, it was a problematic time. On the Tuesday afternoon, I was operated on, to have a nail and two screws inserted into my thigh. Already the following day, the nurses suggested that I get out of bed and sit in an armchair for a few hours, and on the Thursday I received a visit from a physiotherapist, who took me for a walk, with the aid of a frame, down the hospital corridor.

The following Monday, a week later than I originally intended, I was on an aeroplane back home and, although climbing stairs was a bit much for me still, I was able to sleep in my own home at last. And now, nearly a month later, I am getting ready to ‘get back in the saddle’ and commentate at the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch. If ever there was a motivation to recovery, surely that must be it!

Safety Cars and Track Limits

Last week I managed to get around to posting my first article of the year and here I am, already posting my second! I am making an effort to catch up – not that anyone really relies on my blog, but please indulge me anyway.

My last post was a bit of a ramble and I want to make this a bit more targeted. Firstly, Safety Cars. A new procedure was introduced this year at Le Mans to handle Safety Car interventions. Briefly, the procedure involved sending out three Safety Cars (as normal) onto the track initially, to neutralise the field as quickly as possible. They would continue to circulate, and the pit lane entry would remain open, for as long as it took to clear the incident. The pit lane exit would be closed, until the end of the line of cars following a Safety Car went past.

So far, no change from the way it has worked in previous years. However, once the incident that caused the Safety Car had been cleared, a new process was introduced, with the aim of getting the cars lined up behind the leader of each class, with each class in a separate group. This consisted of three stages: one, the ‘merge’ – removing two Safety Cars and leaving the field backed up behind the remaining one; two, the ‘wave-by’, where every car whose class leader is behind it is allowed to pass the Safety Car and catch up with the tail of the field; and three, the ‘drop back’, where first the LMP2 cars, and then the GTE-Am cars fell to the back of the line of cars.

If it takes a while to explain, it takes even longer to execute, and relies on everyone knowing what they’re doing. Personally, I thought it was a recipe for confusion and chaos; but in practice it worked pretty well. The objective was achieved and all the cars lined up in their right class positions. The main issue was the time it took to happen. Although we had three Safety Car interludes, the first one came directly after the start of the race, so the cars were just about in class order anyway. Even then, it took an additional 14m 25s between the incident being declared ‘cleared’ and the green flag being waved. The following two uses of the Safety Car took, respectively, 34m 10s and 23m 56s. That’s a total of 1h 12m 31s of potential racing time lost, while cars were ‘faffing around’ getting themselves sorted into the right order, quite aside from the actual job of getting the incident cleared. If we would have had four classes, as in previous years, it would have taken even longer.

Apart from the time taken though, is the philosophical question of whether closing the field up behind the leader is the ‘right’ thing to do. I must admit I tend to count myself among the many hoping, as Richard Williams put it in this month’s Motor Sport magazine, “never… to see the integrity of a historic race threatened by practices borrowed from Daytona and Sebring”. The trouble is that without these practices, the field may get artificially spread out, and in these days of artificial performance-balanced racing, it is tough to come back if you do find yourself half-a-lap down.

The Spa 24 hours uses a ‘Full Course Yellow’ procedure, followed by a Safety Car, achieving the same end in a different way. The difference in SRO racing is that although it is multi-class, the classes are based on the crew composition, not the car performance, so no account is taken of the classes when sorting out the order of the cars behind the leader. So then it is pot luck whether you have your ‘ace’ driver in the car at the time of the appearance of the Safety Car or not.

I have just returned from Estoril, where Creventic were running one of their 24H Series races – a 12-hour encounter which had a 6-hour Qualification Race beforehand. Creventic do not use a Safety Car at all, but neutralise the field using ‘Code-60’ when necessary. This is a slower version of SRO’s Full Course Yellow, (operating at 60km/h rather than 80km/h) but it is restarted directly with a green flag, leaving the cars where they are, theoretically at least, when the signal to restart is given. Interestingly, this also leads to accusations of unfairness, as an awful lot can depend on the timing of the Code-60; how much fuel you have aboard, how close you are to the pit entry and whether there is a fuel pump available. Inevitably, the organisers are looking at ways of improving the process.

I mentioned Howden Haynes in my last post, and I’ll mention him again now. His objective was always to set the car up to be at its optimum at the end of the race, not at the start. It’s an especially sensible policy if you’ve got a Safety Car rule which bunches up the field.

It's not really fair to compare the Spa and Le Mans 24 hour races, but just because I can, here are some statistics. I include the Creventic race at Estoril for interest:
- Le Mans had 24 changes of lead among 8 different cars, representing five different brands;
- Spa had 68 changes of lead among 19 different cars, representing seven different brands;
- Estoril had 4 changes of lead among 4 different cars, representing three different brands (in a 12-hour race).

In addition
- Le Mans had 3 Safety Car periods, and 5 Full Course Yellows accounting for 3h 37m
- Spa had 9 Safety Car periods and 8 Full Course Yellows accounting for 4h 47m
- Estoril had 6 Code-60 periods accounting for 31m (in a 12-hour race)

Track Limits are becoming a bit of a theme, not just in Formula 1, but also at Le Mans as well as at Spa. At Spa, more than 2500 race control messages related to track limit offences.

At Le Mans, 801 messages from race control warned of track limit offences.

At Estoril, drivers were told in their briefing that the blue and white kerbs formed part of the track, and that, provided they did not stray beyond that limit with all four wheels, then they would not be penalised. It was fully appreciated that this was a more lenient approach, but the Race Control staff realised that spending too much time assessing Track Limit offences would possibly lead them to overlooking other, more serious safety issues. Hence their approach and there were only 23 warnings given and six 10-second penalties issued for track limit violations – and one of those was later cancelled.

These kinds of comparisons are futile, of course, and irrelevant for a number of reasons, not least because of the amateur nature of the entrants in Creventic races compared with the professionalism of Le Mans. But they may give some cause for consideration somewhere.

Anniversaries

A month has now passed since Le Mans, and I realise with some concern that I have not posted anything on this blog all year. I have always said that this blog is a personal outlet for me to indulge in various ramblings, and that I won’t be held to deadlines on it – it is, after all, my choice when and what I write. But what should you, my loyal readers, do? Well, that’s up to you really. At various points in the past I have posted detailed analyses of races here, travelogues of some of my visits to races, and personal opinions on the state of different championships and racing categories. Now I find myself just writing something because it’s a long time since I did so.

First, a quick medical report – for those who follow my ups and downs closely – my multiple myeloma remains in remission. I have been told that this won’t last forever, but I can live a relatively normal life these days, with the biggest health issues relating as much to my advancing years as to the cancer.

This means that I have been able to have a busy year thus far. On the racing front, I have worked with Red Camel at the Creventic races at Dubai, Mugello, Spa and, just last weekend, Estoril. On top of that I have commentated on the PA at Silverstone and Donington Park, and – the highlight of the year – at Le Mans.

Although it was pretty special to be at Le Mans last year, after a two-year hiatus finally getting to my 40th Le Mans 24-hour race, this year’s 100th anniversary was in many ways even more special. The presence of Ferrari, Porsche, Peugeot and Cadillac meant that the paddock atmosphere was buzzing, and my one trip into the spectator enclosures during Wednesday evening qualifying confirmed that spectator attendance was indeed record-breaking.

It's been a big year for anniversaries, and these days there seems to be a greater need to celebrate them than ever before. The fact that the first Le Mans 24-hour race took place one hundred years ago this year was difficult to miss – as was Porsche’s 75th anniversary. The Spa 24 hours was also celebrating its 75th running (although anyone who was there in 1993 will be unable to forget the abandonment of the race early on Sunday morning, following the unexpected death of King Baudouin). Silverstone is celebrating 75 years since its first race this year – the Festival later this year will remind everyone – and talking of Silverstone, the British Racing Drivers’ Club is 95 years old this year.

For a chap called Bob Curl, Le Mans 2023 saw a particularly special anniversary. It was seventy years since his first visit to Le Mans. In 1953, at the age of sixteen, he set off from his home with his push bike and a train ticket and witnessed the fabled “hangover victory” of Duncan Hamilton and Tony Rolt in their C-Type Jaguar. Bob is a tremendous enthusiast and a splendid chap. His name is indelibly linked with the Nomad, a car that he designed and built back in the late sixties for Mark Konig. Look it up in the Dailysportscar archive, or simply type “Mark Konig Nomad” into a search engine of your choice.

(I’ll probably get into all sorts of copyright trouble if I post any pictures here, but without doubt the Nomad – all three of them – are very pretty cars).

Anyway, seventy years on, Bob was at Le Mans again: camping outside the Porsche Curves, and when I spoke to him a week or so ago, it was clear that he had a great time. So much so, that he’s already made his reservation to stay there again next year!

I have to share one other tale about Bob, and that is his autograph book. Obviously, he grew up in the years before mobile phones and selfies became the rage, when small boys would get the autographs of their heroes. I was honoured a few years ago, not just to see, but to hold in my hand, Bob’s autograph book; and it must surely be the most complete record of the leading lights of motor sport over the years. Nuvolari, Fangio, Moss, Clark, Stewart: they are all there. He even has SCH (Sammy) Davis, winner of Le Mans for Bentley in 1927. When Bob first showed me this autograph book, he showed me the gap which had fortuitously been left on the same page as Davis’s scrawl and asked me if I thought that it might be a good place for Fernando Alonso, winner of the race some 91 years later, to sign. Of course I said it was a splendid idea, and at Silverstone later that year, Fernando duly signed in the gap and, being Fernando, thought it was all brilliant.

Anyway, Le Mans 2023 was unquestionably a thrilling race and I was so glad to be there to witness it – even if I did spend most of the race in the broadcasting studio of Radio Le Mans. It certainly exceeded my expectations and I must admit that I didn’t expect either Ferrari to keep their pace up as well as they did. The end result was in doubt even into the last two hours, when Toyota found themselves between a rock and a hard place. Brendon Hartley had to hand the car over or go beyond his drive time limit, and Sébastien Buemi had already had nine track limit warnings to his name. Toyota did not want to risk him getting a penalty and that left Ryo Hirakawa, who could feasibly have caught Alessandro Pier Guidi’s Ferrari in that final shift, but for his unfamiliarity with the braking on the Toyota, which had become a lot more erratic in the closing stages of the race. The Ferrari was also not without its problems – restarting the car after the pitstop was a known issue, which could have changed the outcome completely. It was a proper ending to an endurance race, with the reliability of both of the two cars fighting for the lead in doubt.

In the glory days of Audi, I became good friends with Howden ‘H’ Haynes, who engineered Audi to success in the 24 hours in 2008. ‘H’ was co-founder of Progressive motorsport, whose competitive spirit and attention to detail not only introduced Kyle Wilson-Clarke (later race engineer at Porsche, after Audi’s withdrawal), but also Leena Gade, who went on to engineer the winning Audi in 2012.

Another graduate of Progressive was Justin Taylor, who continued the winning tradition by running the no. 51 AF Corse-entered Ferrari at Le Mans this year. I have heard that Justin was using the (manual) stop watch given to him by H to determine the car’s position on the track, and thus to know when to talk to the driver on the circuit. Anyone who has seen Audi’s “Truth in 24” movie will have gained a bit of an insight into H’s approach to a race: he is highly intelligent, meticulous and competitive. It is a way of working that he shares with everyone that he comes into contact with and he has undoubtedly had a big influence on Taylor. I should have known better than to doubt that philosophy continuing to influence the race!

Sticking to Plan A

It’s the time of year when I really should be getting ready for Christmas, but instead I decided to spend a bit of time sharing with you some of my experiences in Kuwait at the recent 12-hour race there. I have already written about how we achieved the success that we did; the aim of this article is to take you behind the scenes to give a flavour of what it was like to be there.

The Kuwait 12 hours, organised by Creventic, was ground-breaking in that it was the first international circuit motor race in Kuwait, although I understand that there had been a rallycross event there in 2021. It was a somewhat late addition to the calendar, taking place as a substitute for the 24h of Sebring, which was originally intended to bring the 2022 Championship of the Continents to a close. Creventic felt that the logistics of getting the cars to and back from Sebring were too challenging, however, and it was decided that Kuwait would be a simpler option.

It was somewhat ironic then, that the logistical challenge of getting the cars to Kuwait proved just as tough. I am not aware of all of the details, but I know that the cars were being transported via Saudi Arabia (from Jeddah) by road, and some arrived earlier than others.

I was there at the behest of the Red Camel-Jordans.nl team, and for the second time this season, their regular Team Manager, Thomas, could not be there. That meant, as at Mugello, that I was required to step up to the task. My flight landed at Kuwait International at one o’clock in the morning of Wednesday, November 30th, so having landed, I went straight to the hotel and to bed. By this time, I not only knew that our car was not at the circuit, but also that it wasn’t expected until the afternoon – at the earliest.

Hence breakfast on Wednesday morning was a fairly relaxed affair, followed by a half-hour drive to the circuit, and sitting around in our empty garage, awaiting developments. As it became clear that the expected arrival time of 2pm was actually far too optimistic, some of the team decided to return to the hotel to try out the pool. I used the time to prepare some runsheets in Excel instead, but still managed to get sufficiently distracted to almost miss the Team Manager’s Meeting at 5pm.

Our drivers for the race would be the usual ‘family’ team of Ivo Breukers (also the Team Principal), and his sons Rik and Luc. In addition to the drivers, there were just eight of us, including myself. However, we had two student helpers from the local technical college, whose names, I am ashamed to say, I never established! We also had Ivo’s wife, Ria, and a family friend, Mark, providing moral support.

At 6:15pm, the first session of private testing began, and still we had no car. We weren’t alone though: ARC Bratislava, Wolf Power, HRT, Leipert and Lionspeed were also still waiting for the delivery of their containers. Also missing were the containers carrying the TV equipment and refuelling gear. At 10pm, we decided to cut our losses and head back to the hotel, having been promised that the car would be delivered sometime after 11pm. After some discussion, we decided to leave the hotel at 5:30 the next morning and unpack the container then, aiming to be ready for the first private test of the morning, which was scheduled to start at 9am.

I drew up a ‘Plan B’, in case it took longer than we thought, which involved missing the first session at 9am and only going out at 10:30, the downside of which meant having much less time to work on the car. As it turned out, we opened the container doors shortly before 6am, built the garage from scratch, and were out on track at 9:10am, Luc at the wheel.

It was a busy day: the Private Test went on until 12:15pm, drivers’ briefing at 1:30pm, another Private Test from 2:15pm to 3:45pm, then we had about an hour and a half to make any changes to the car before the official Free Practice / Night Practice session from 5:30pm to 7:30pm, and the three 15-minute Qualifying sessions (in which each driver was required to set a lap time) to round things off. There was then an optional 45-minute Private Test at 9:15pm, which could be used for final set-ups if required. If all went according to plan (Plan A), then we would not use this session.

We had two significant problems: first that the car was not handling quite to the liking of Ivo or Luc, and second that Rik, our quickest driver and the one best-able to set the car up, was otherwise occupied dealing with the transporters bringing the containers to the circuit. The good news, though was that our tyre degradation seemed to be very low; which was also frustrating, as we expected to be able to go quicker on new tyres, but the better lap times just weren’t to be found.

We spoke to the engineers from Hankook and adjusted the camber settings at the back, and the rollbar settings at the front, and eventually got the car as good as we could, although somehow still with the feeling that there was a better configuration out there somewhere. With Night Practice requiring that Rik set two timed laps, as well as doing his laps during qualifying, I was more than a little concerned that he was still pre-occupied getting the still-missing containers to the circuit. At least we had ours. At the last minute, Rik arrived, did his laps, announced that the car set-up was good (enough) and went back to his phone.

In the end, our qualifying time was good enough for second in our class on the grid, behind the unfeasibly fast Willi Motorsport car, driven by Sergiu Nicolae, Sabino de Castro and Fabrizio Broggi. The class was full of quick cars – it would be a tough race.

Even tougher for Leipert and HRT, whose containers were still en route throughout Thursday, with the race scheduled to start on Friday at 12 noon. As we left the circuit on Thursday evening – around 11pm, Leipert’s container was just arriving: they would have 12 hours to get the car ready for the grid!

So raceday came along. We got to the circuit at shortly before 9am, and had a quick meeting with the crew to establish what everyone would be doing. Rob was chief mechanic – he knew the ins and outs of the car better than anyone. Gert-Jan, Patje, Daan and Justin (making his debut with the team) would be changing the wheels. Roy would look after the tyres, making sure that we had the right set in the oven at the right time, and that the pressures were right. And Darren, as usual, would be our refueller – assisted by one or other of our local students. The other student had to dive in the passenger side of the car at pit stops and change the drinks bottle. Roy would also operate the lollipop, simultaneously with Daan bringing the tyres to the front of the garage.

What about me? I was doing everything and nothing. Everything in the sense that I had to coordinate everyone together, track fuel consumption and decide when and how much to refuel, evaluate the risks versus benefits of pitting under a Code 60, monitor tyre usage and make sure the drivers knew when they were required for their next stint. My only other job was to stay out of the way.

Under normal circumstances, Rik would be our start driver. But having had very little sleep in the preceding five days, he didn’t want to start this time, so that job fell to Luc. After that, I planned to put Ivo in the car, then Rik.

Luc had a good start and led our class (fifth overall) at the end of the opening lap, but against faster drivers in our rivals’ cars, he fell to fourth by the end of lap 3. On lap 19, 37 minutes into the race, the purple code-60 flags waved for the first time. We had used around 45 litres of fuel, so it was worth using the period of slow-running to refuel, but I decided to leave the car on the same set of tyres, and not take valuable time changing them.

Anders Fjordbach (in the no. 930 HRT car) stayed out and thus kept the class lead, but we were now only 18s behind Sabino de Castro in the Willi Motorsport car. Inevitably, Fjordbach pitted for fuel on lap 41, but one lap later de Castro also came in after a stint of just 22 laps. We were now leading the class, and had fuel enough to take Luc to his two-hour drive time limit. In fact, with an hour and three-quarters gone, and the leading GT3 cars having to stop for fuel, we actually led the race overall for a few laps!

I decided to call Luc in a lap early, just in case we had radio communication difficulties. Remember, this team is used to working entirely in Dutch on the radio, so to have an Englishman coming in and telling them what to do was not without risk, particularly when it comes to the strict limit of two hours’ driving at a time. Luc pitted with his driving time at 1h 57m 25s: one lap to spare!

Ivo was next in: a very different character to Luc. Unlike his son, who likes to be left alone on the radio, Ivo likes a constant stream of information, what is his position, who is in front, who is behind, what are the gaps. He also tends to take a little while to get used to the car. Crucially, he is not as quick as either of his sons. Whereas Luc’s average lap time was around 1m 59.7s, Ivo was lapping around more than a second slower.

The pit stop was quick and as Ivo came out, we still led the class, with a one-minute cushion over our nearest class rival. After 25 minutes, we had another code-60 – just as with Luc’s stint, my decision was to refuel but not take tyres. Once again, this meant that we would be nudging the two-hour drive-time limit before we ran out of fuel. I brought Ivo in at the last possible minute, after 1h 58m 09s – one more lap and he would have been over the maximum permissible drive time.

Rik was ready to go now, but the pressure had been somewhat relieved as our competition had not been able to optimise things as well as we had. We had managed to go more than four hours before completing our fourth stop – Willi Motorsport was more than a lap behind before we came in for our stop, nearly half-an-hour later. And, Fabrizio Broggi, the slowest driver on Willi’s crew, still had to get into the car. Although Ivo was our slowest driver (I should say, least quick), we had no intention of reducing his time in the car to compensate.

Rik had been in the car for almost an hour, when we had the third code-60. It was well-timed for us, since Willi had had to pit less than ten minutes earlier, and could not take advantage. But it came as a result of our earlier optimisation of the driving time, which gave us maximum flexibility when we needed it. On our side, I really would have preferred to have left Rik in the car at this point, but he was too tired after his one-hour stint, so we did a full service, and put Luc back in the car. He re-joined on new tyres, still leading the class, in fourth place overall, with a lap advantage over the Willi Motorsport car, now with Broggi at the wheel, losing nearly two seconds a lap to Luc.

Luc had only been able to take on 55 litres of fuel, because the stop was under Code-60 conditions – enough for 34 laps, or around 70 minutes driving, so I decided to give him a double stint, enabling to still further extend our lead over the Willi Motorsport car, while it was in the hands of Broggi. That plan had to be adjusted though, as a little over half an hour later, we had another Code 60. This looked like being a longer one, so having got Ivo into the car, we then made a second stop for fuel, ensuring that Ivo had a full tank to play with.

Although Ivo’s times were very consistent, the 955 car now had Sergiu Nicolae aboard, and was flying, gaining three seconds per lap on us and halving the gap from over four minutes to a little over a lap in the space of an hour and a quarter. Rik was due in the car next, but had ordered a hamburger and didn’t want to go out on an empty stomach!

In hindsight, it was an unfortunate call, but after a 37-lap stint, we got the pit stop done, Rik into the car and refuelled (a hamburger for himself and petrol for the car!) and we were back out on track. But almost immediately, we had another Code 60 (the fifth of the race). Willi Motorsport had also committed to a stop before the Code 60, but got lucky, as their stop continued while the incident was dealt with.

There were three hours to go and Rik was lapping at full speed, but Sabino de Castro in the Willi Motorsport entry was lapping quicker, and managed to unlap himself. However, after a stint of just 17 laps, they were back in the pits to change the brakes, losing nearly three minutes in the process. Chief mechanic Rob had been monitoring our brake wear and was confident we could get through without a brake change.

So the pendulum swung back in our favour. With less than two hours of the race remaining, we were into the window in which Luc could get to the finish and our lead was just under seven minutes. The car had run faultlessly up to this point – but how many things could still possibly go wrong?

Well, for one thing, we would still need two stops to get to the finish and Willi Motorsport would only need one. Then Luc, getting up to speed after a code 60 period suddenly reported a “shaking brake pedal” – this was reminiscent of the brake problem we had experienced in Barcelona. After a few laps though, it got better. A few laps more and Luc reported on the radio that it was “OK”.

In the final hour, Nicolae was again closing at a rate of three seconds (and more) per lap, but Luc kept his cool and his lap times consistently in the 1m 59s / 2m 00s bracket, which was all that was needed to ensure our class win. The problems for the GP Elite GT3 Porsche were somewhat unexpected, but handed us an unexpected place on the overall podium.

So unexpected that Luc – having initially not seen the chequered flag – then didn’t realise that his finishing position meant that he would not have to go into Parc Fermé, but could stop beneath the podium and his delighted team were able to congratulate him properly. Obviously I am biased, but it was a great performance by Luc, who drove for more than five and a half hours out of the twelve, compared to Ivo’s 3h 19m and Rik’s 2h 36m.

Willi Motorsport’s car had been, in Ivo’s words: “unbelievably quick: braking later and carrying far more speed through the corners”. Without their brake issue, I still believe we would have won, but it would have been a far closer contest, and who knows, perhaps the additional pressure that brought might have contributed to something else going wrong for us?

In less than a month, we will be back in the Middle East – to Dubai for the 24 hours and the second (of three) round of the Middle East Trophy. Red Camel will have their regular Team Manager back and I will be concentrating on getting our strategy right. Hopefully, we will be blessed with similar car reliability as well.

Success in Kuwait

Most people reading this will know that I was in Kuwait for Creventic’s inaugural 12-hour race there. And most will, I hope, know that it was a very satisfying race for the Red Camel-Jordans.nl squad, for whom I was Team Manager. We came third overall, due mainly to a high rate of attrition in the top, GT3 and GTX classes, but equally importantly, we won the 992 class for Porsche 992 Cup cars, doing so, it has to be said, rather against the odds.

The competition was very strong: in qualifying, the Willi Motorsport Porsche (no. 955), beat us to class pole with its two very quick ‘Semi-Pro’ drivers, Sergiu Nicolae and Sabino de Castro and the less quick Fabrizio Broggi. Not far behind us on the grid was the Rabdan/Speed Lover-entered car (no. 979), which had the very quick Enrico Fernando Fulgenzi on its crew, and three cars from HRT Performance (nos. 928, 929 and 930).

In the race, our pace was good, but we could not live with the performance and agility of the Willi Motorsport car. It was able to brake much later than us, and carry more speed through the corners – according to Ivo, “it seemed as though it was on rails”.

It had a slightly different front end compared to our car: as the pictures below show. Article 9 in Chapter 3 of the Technical Regulations describes “allowed modifications for the purpose of brake cooling”, and specifies the dimensions of holes in the front bumper, but does not describe holes above the bumper. The car passed scrutineering though, so whatever Willi Motorsport had done, was obviously extremely effective!

On the grid, Rob, our chief mechanic, noticed that the Willi Motorsport car also had much thinner brake pads than we did. It was a clue that they might need to stop for a change, which of course they did, with a little over two-and-a-half hours of the race to go. The stop cost them less than four minutes, but they were unlucky, in that although they started the stop under code-60, it went green before they were back under way.

With ten minutes remaining in the race, the gap between our car and Sergiu Nicolae in the 955 was 3m 52s. At this point, Nicolae slowed his pace, realising that the chase was fruitless, allowing the gap to increase again.

It’s interesting to look at the average lap times per driver:

No.	Car	Driver	Laps	Average lap	Theoretical best
955	Willi Motorsport	Nicolae	142	1m 57.441s	1m 54.980s
955	Willi Motorsport	de Castro	129	1m 58.191s	1m 55.981s
930	HRT Performance	Fjordbach	40	1m 58.222s	1m 56.191s
979	Rabdan Motorsport	Fulgenzi	101	1m 58.449s	1m 55.966s
929	HRT Qatar	Hauschild	55	1m 58.645s	1m 56.682s
909	Red Camel	Breukers, R	71	1m 58.646s	1m 56.045s
909	Red Camel	Breukers, L	154	1m 59.936s	1m 57.583s
929	HRT Qatar	Al Khelaifi	117	2m 00.136s	1m 57.405s
979	Rabdan Motorsport	Alameri	113	2m 00.749s	1m 57.698s
909	Red Camel	Breukers, I	93	2m 00.901s	1m 58.200s
930	HRT Qatar	Al Abdulghani	108	2m 01.136s	1m 57.292s
930	HRT Performance	Al Ali	69	2m 01.643s	1m 57.452s
928	HRT Performance	Bessem	140	2m 01.655s	1m 58.885s
928	HRT Performance	Hilders	173	2m 01.983s	1m 58.921s
955	Willi Motorsport	Broggi	44	2m 02.265s	1m 59.389s

As you can see, de Castro and Nicolae were lapping at least a second per lap quicker than either Rik or Luc (who did 46 laps fewer than the combined total of Nicolae and de Castro). Notice as well that Luc’s average lap time is over a second slower than Rik’s. And although Ivo’s average was 1.3s per lap quicker than Broggi, it’s interesting that Ivo did 49 laps more.

The average lap time for all drivers combined of the Willi Motorsport car was 1m 58.4s, compared to 1m 59.9s for Red Camel. That difference of 1.5s over 318 laps, means that if everything else remained equal, Willi would have nearly eight minutes of an advantage!

So how did we win? As in many an endurance race, it comes down to the time spent in the pits. The Willi Motorsport car spent 39m 26s in the pits, compared to Red Camel, who despite making 12 stops, compared to Willi’s 10, spent only 35m 06s in the pit lane. But that still doesn’t account for the eight-minute difference. To explain that, it is necessary to look at when the pit stops were made, and the use that we made of the Code-60 periods. To analyse this, I drew up a table showing ‘time in pits during green’ vs ‘time in pits during Code-60’, and came up with the following. Firstly, the numbers for Red Camel:

Stop	Pit In at	Pit Out at	Time green	Time C60
1	00:38:59.351	00:41:15.632		02:16.281
2	01:59:41.644	02:03:53.962	04:12.318
3	02:30:53.253	02:32:38.046		01:44.793
4	04:03:48.208	04:08:07.060	04:18.852
5	05:09:34.077	05:12:35.125		03:01.048
6	06:23:03.318	06:26:33.080	03:29.762
7	07:07:01.636	07:10:02.877		03:01.241
8	07:15:20.693	07:16:58.888		01:38.195
9	08:32:53.945	08:37:04.079	04:10.134
10	09:35:14.133	09:37:50.836		02:36.703
11	10:14:44.099	10:17:55.912	03:11.813
12	11:20:01.150	11:21:26.826		01:25.676

This gives a total pit stop time under green of 19m 23s and a total time during Code-60 of 15m 44s. Now, when taking a penalty during a Code 60, Creventic demands that you take double the original penalty time. So it seems reasonable to halve the time spent in the pit under Code 60 meaning that, our ‘effective’ time in the pits was actually only 19m 23s plus 7m 52s making 27m 15s. For Willi Motorsport, car 955, the same procedure gives:

Stop	Pit In at	Pit Out at	Time green	Time C60
1	00:43:14.642	00:46:15.044		03:00.402
2	01:31:49.341	01:35:09.777	03:20.436
3	02:09:19.228	02:11:44.028	02:24.800
4	03:35:10.420	03:39:36.122	04:25.702
5	04:56:22.853	05:01:10.668	04:47.815
6	06:37:35.168	06:42:02.417	04:27.249
7	07:05:17.912	07:07:00.637		01:42.725
8	08:36:56.538	08:41:36.751	03:49.462	00:50.751
9	09:21:11.467	09:28:03.892	05:51.892	01:00.533
10	10:47:04.200	10:50:48.966	03:44.766

The total pit stop time under green is 32m 52s, and under code-60 6m 34s, hence an ‘effective’ total time of 36m 09s. So the actual gain for our car in the pits was 8m 54s, which is consistent with Red Camel’s class-winning margin at the chequered flag.

Sadly, Luc was so caught up in the moment at the end of the race, that he didn’t see the chequered flag and I had to assure him over the radio that he actually had finished the race and was third overall. And of course, he then didn’t know where to go, and so there I was, while the team was congratulating one another, having to guide our driver into his well-earned spot under the podium. It was a great effort by everyone concerned, and a result only made possible by the wonderful reliability of our car – a great comeback after the disappointments in Portimão and Barcelona earlier in the season.

Working the strategy...

In a few days’ time I shall be heading out to Kuwait for the final race of my 2022 season. And what a great season it has been. Since being diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2020 and reaching some pretty low points; this year has surpassed anything that I could have hoped for. Just over two years ago, I was discharged from hospital after a stem cell transplant feeling pretty rough – I had no appetite, little strength and was exhausted after even the smallest of activities. Although my back remains more than five inches shorter than it was, and I rely on medication to keep me going through the days, I am a lot stronger than I was, and have recovered far more of my strength than I once thought possible. Altogether, I’ve been to 19 race events during the course of this year – Kuwait will be the twentieth – and many of those have been on local PA commentary, about which I have written recently on this blog. When I haven’t been occupied doing commentary though, I have been working with the Red Camel-Jordans.nl team at various events in Creventic’s 24H Series.

Creventic’s 2022 calendar has been a busy one: it started in January, in Dubai, where Red Camel ran their relatively recently-acquired Porsche 992 with high hopes following the washout that was the 2021 race. We had enlisted the driving talents of Jeroen Bleekemolen, Julius Adomavičius and Morris Schuring, alongside Team Owner Ivo Breukers.

Clockwise from top left, Ivo Breukers, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Julius Adomavičius and Morris Schuring.

Bleekemolen should need no introduction to endurance racing fans: twice an outright winner of the Dubai 24 hours (in a Mercedes), as well as a class winner at Le Mans. Julius, from Lithuania, was just 20 years of age, but had experience of driving LMP3 as well as Touring cars. The youngster of the team was Morris Schuring at just 16, who spent 2021 driving in the German Porsche Supercup, with a couple of outings to his name in the GP-support races as well. I’ll say no more about Ivo at this stage, since he is a feature of the Red Camel team throughout the season; suffice to say that he is very much a hands-on Team Owner, in whom a fierce competitive spirit burns.

The race itself ran well – we came home third in class, without quite the pace of the two Team GP-Elite Porsches that beat us. It’s always interesting to compare driver performance within the team. For us, we had:

Name	Driving Time	Laps	Best lap	Ave of best 20%	Theoretical best
Bleekemolen	6h 10m 30s	164	2m 03.362s	2m 04.702s	2m 03.260s
Schuring	6h 06m 35s	154	2m 04.070s	2m 05.287a	2m 03.750s
Adomavičius	5h 46m 01s	147	2m 04.954s	2m 06.074s	2m 04.904s
Breukers	3h 59m 08s	101	2m 06.457s	2m 07.808s	2m 05.854s

After Dubai, there was a break before the two-part, 12-hour race at Mugello in March. It’s a lovely part of the world, beautiful scenery, delightful cuisine and relatively accessible. When I arrived, I learnt that Thomas, our usual Team Manager, couldn’t be there and I was somewhat taken aback when the team decided that I should take on the role for the race weekend. I was quite comfortable running the strategy for the team: deciding when to stop for fuel, whether making an extra stop under code-60 conditions could prove beneficial, making sure that the team kept within driving time limits, etc., but to have to take the responsibility of making all the calls: on tyres, brakes, set-up changes, etc., put me well outside my comfort zone.

I was comfortable enough with our driver line-up though, as Ivo was joined by his two sons, Rik (24) and Luc (22). The boys are just as competitive as their father; Rik usually the quicker of the two, although on his day, Luc can push him quite hard – as is often the case with siblings.

L-R Rik, Ivo, Luc

Happily for me, GP-Elite was not entered for this race: our main competition was from HRT Performance and Red Ant Racing. From the very beginning of the weekend, though, it was clear that we had a quick car – the set-up worked very well around Mugello and a class win was on the cards. At the end of Part 1 (five-and-a-half hours) we were a few seconds clear of the HRT car and a lap ahead of the Red Ant Porsche.

A little over half-way through the second part, we had managed to establish almost (but not quite) a lap lead. In Creventic racing, in which there are no Safety Cars, being a lap ahead provides a psychological advantage but no real extra advantage, since the gaps in neutralisation periods stay (fairly) consistent. However, there came a pit stop, where we pitted immediately behind the other HRT team car. Ivo Breukers was in the car, and needed to fuel, so headed to the fuelling station, as did the HRT entry. But their car hesitated, seemed unsure where he wanted to go. Ivo could see our refueller at the first pump, and dived for the space. A few minutes later, news of a penalty for our car (a pit stop infringement) came through. We dutifully took the penalty (a 10-second stop and go) at our next routine stop, but about half-an-hour later another message appeared on the timing screens: “Team Manager car 909 to race control immediately”. I regretted taking the decision to accept the role, but made my way up the stairs and along the darkened corridors. I was introduced to the steward, who showed me video footage of our “indiscretion”.

“Look,” he said and showed me the regulation where it said there could be no overtaking in the refuelling area, and that it was not allowed to reserve a place at a pump. I agreed that it looked wrong, but explained that the driver of the HRT car had come to a complete standstill and our refueller was ready to start servicing our car straightaway. “There should be a penalty”, said the steward.

“There was!” I replied, “and we served it”. At this point the steward’s face dropped a little.

“Wait there,” he said and disappeared off to another room. He came back a few minutes later, telling me I was free to go. So off I went, without it being really clear whether that was the end of the matter. It seemed that HRT had protested the original penalty as being insufficient for the offence. That wasn’t our problem, of course, we served our penalty and got on with the race, coming home some two minutes clear of the other HRT car. I’ll admit, it was a good feeling, watching the drivers on the top step of the podium, knowing that the combination of my strategy, quick drivers, and fast work from our mechanics in the pits had led to the class victory. But the protest left an unnecessary cloud.

The season then moved on, to Spa-Francochamps, and due to clashing commitments, I couldn’t make the trip to be there in person, but the team was very clear that I was still needed to run the strategy for them. So I sat in my study at home, one computer connected to the timing feed from Timeservice.nl, a second computer connected to the car’s telemetry and a third with local spreadsheets running on it. All-in-all, it was a good set-up and I was happy with the way it was working. I communicated with the garage via a WhatsApp chat group, which was not the same as being there, but seemed to work okay.

Except that it didn’t. Towards the end of part one of the race (again, five-and-a-half hours), we had a commanding class lead, a comfortable lap ahead of our nearest rival (the 903 Red Ant car). Towards the end of the first part, the plan was to come in to the pit to refuel – thus enabling us to start part 2 on very nearly a full tank.

However, it didn’t quite go to plan. I wasn’t in the garage, of course, but I established later that Ivo and Rik, who were in the garage, had seen the opportunity to get a two-lap advantage on the Red Ant car, by not getting a full tank of fuel at the final stop. There seemed to be some confusion between the refueller and the garage, and Luc was sent on his way having only taken on 21 litres of fuel. This meant that we would be starting part 2 with almost no fuel on board at all. Bearing in mind the need to drive the car a lap to the grid and a further green flag lap behind the Safety Car at the restart, before the car would be allowed to come into the pit for a proper, legal refuelling stop, it was decided to pull the car off the grid and send it directly to the refuelling station.

All of this meant that, from being a lap ahead at the end of part one, within the first 15 minutes of part 2, we were two laps behind and the Red Ant car was simply too fast for us to catch it in the second part of the race. Third in class was all we could manage. “We got too greedy,” Ivo agreed with me afterwards.

With the aim of preventing a repeat, I was all set to go to Hockenheim for round 4 of the series, but rather late in the day I received a call-up from Radio Show Limited, explaining that they were short of commentators for the race, and that they needed me to commentate more than Red Camel needed me in the pit garage. After the Spa-Francorchamps debacle, I had some doubts, but Ivo had the good grace to release me, and hence I spent my first ever trip to Hockenheim working from the commentary box on the outside of the circuit, rather than from inside Red Camel’s garage.

It made a welcome change though, and on top of that, my colleagues at Red Camel had a successful weekend, bringing the Porsche home to another class win in the (six plus six) twelve-hour race.

Next up were two 24-hour races, the first of which was at Portimao in the lovely Algarve region of Southern Portugal. For this and for the 24-hours at Barcelona, the family team of Ivo, Rik and Luc Breukers would be joined by Fabian Danz, a Swiss driver regularly competing in Creventic races, but only in front-wheel drive, TCR-class cars. Apart from some outings in a BMW, it would be Fabian’s first experience of anything like the Porsche 992.

It was a long trip for the transporter, and drama for the Red Camel car, which, it was discovered on getting to the circuit, hadn’t been properly secured and suffered some damage in transit. It seemed to be largely superficial, but in the light of what happened later in the weekend, maybe that wasn’t the case after all.

There was further drama before the start, as our rival entry from ID Racing was running an illegal exhaust, and to prove that others in the class were running to the regulation, we had to remove the exhaust system to prove that our catalytic converter was in place. It was all extra work for the small but dedicated team of mechanics, and maybe, just maybe, it led to some mistakes being made.

That done, it was on with the business of qualifying, and a good job all round (qualifying takes the best lap from each of three drivers) saw us qualify second in class, eighth overall.

Apart from an early puncture, the first half of the race went well – we were leading the class and up to third place overall when disaster struck in the shape of a right driveshaft failure that took just over an hour to replace. With one rival already retired, the and only three cars remaining in the race, the hard decision was taken to retire the car. We continued long enough to complete enough laps to be classified for championship points, but there really was nothing to be gained by continuing.

The bonus was, having packed away the garage, the team was free to go to the beach and enjoy some sunshine.

The Circuit de Catalunya was next, and the team was definitely ready to avenge the disappointment of Portimao. Fabian Danz had fitted in really well with the team in Portugal, and whilst not as quick as Rik, was certainly playing his part. Qualifying went even better than in Portimao, Rik, Luc and Fabian combining to put our Porsche on class pole.

Disaster struck early on this time: Rik having completed just over an hour from the start, was in the barrier at turn 1, following a brake failure. It took nearly forty minutes to get the car back to the garage, and then over five hours to repair it. Clearly, a recovery drive was going to be out of the question, but having repaired the car, everyone was keen to get on with the race. There was still a long way to go. Through the night, we kept at it, changed the discs and pads in the early hours of the morning and were not actually losing any ground to the class leaders, remaining the same distance behind them (about five-and-a-half hours) for the remainder of the race.

Until about an hour to go, the brakes started to worry us again, so to minimise risk, with nothing to gain, we parked the car and good old Luc went out to complete the final few laps to the flag.

Not a great way to end the European season. Red Camel took second place honours in the European Championship, and worthily so. But for those bad results in Portimao and Barcelona, it could have been better. But I had learnt a lot. Having been in this business as long as I have, it is so refreshing to be able to still be learning things after forty years and more.

The race in Kuwait will be the final round of the Championship of the Continents, and also the first round of the Middle East Championship, which consists of points scored in Kuwait (12 hours), Dubai (24 hours), and Abu Dhabi (6 hours). Bring it on, I say!